Jailbait princess

Jailbait princess

Vartolomei delivers a convincing performance as Violetta, a vulnerable daughter stripped of her schoolgirl innocence, who mutates into a sexually disturbed, preteen prima donna when her attention-seeking mother (Huppert) discovers her as her ticket into a madly eccentric Parisian art scene. Though rich in 1970s avant-gardism, with aesthetically appealing sets and costume design, the pervasive Marlene Dietrich references in Ionesco’s debut film continually distract the audience from its central theme: the slippery slope from erotic art to child exploitation and pornography.